Rights, Knowledge, and Governance for Improved Health Equity in Urban Settings

Barten, Francoise; Akerman, Marco; Becker, Daniel; Friel, Sharon; Hancock, Trevor; Mwatsama, Modi; Rice, Marilyn; Sheuya, Shaaban; Stern, Ruth

doi:10.1007/s11524-011-9608-z

Cited by 27 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…We conclude by proposing a way forward for urbanization that is based on principles of health, equity, and environmental sustainability and outline key components of a global research agenda to support such an approach to urban development. Papers by Smit et al, 1 Salgado et al, 2 Friel et al, 3,4 and Barten et al 5 describe in detail the relationship between urban health inequities in LMICs and each of the determinants, and review the evidence relating to action that has been used to address these causes of health inequities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing the Social and Environmental Determinants of Urban Health Equity: Evidence for Action and a Research Agenda

et al. 2011

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Urban living is the new reality for the majority of the world's population. Urban change is taking place in a context of other global challenges--economic globalization, climate change, financial crises, energy and food insecurity, old and emerging armed conflicts, as well as the changing patterns of communicable and noncommunicable diseases. These health and social problems, in countries with different levels of infrastructure and health system preparedness, pose significant development challenges in the 21st century. In all countries, rich and poor, the move to urban living has been both good and bad for population health, and has contributed to the unequal distribution of health both within countries (the urban-rural divide) and within cities (the rich-poor divide). In this series of papers, we demonstrate that urban planning and design and urban social conditions can be good or bad for human health and health equity depending on how they are set up. We argue that climate change mitigation and adaptation need to go hand-in-hand with efforts to achieve health equity through action in the social determinants. And we highlight how different forms of governance can shape agendas, policies, and programs in ways that are inclusive and health-promoting or perpetuate social exclusion, inequitable distribution of resources, and the inequities in health associated with that. While today we can describe many of the features of a healthy and sustainable city, and the governance and planning processes needed to achieve these ends, there is still much to learn, especially with respect to tailoring these concepts and applying them in the cities of lower- and middle-income countries. By outlining an integrated research agenda, we aim to assist researchers, policy makers, service providers, and funding bodies/donors to better support, coordinate, and undertake research that is organized around a conceptual framework that positions health, equity, and sustainability as central policy goals for urban management.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Addressing the Social and Environmental Determinants of Urban Health Equity: Evidence for Action and a Research Agenda

et al. 2011

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“…Moreover, there are great disparities in resources and capacity between cities in higher versus middle-and low-income settings. Yet some commonalities also exist 55 , notably the profusion of public and private urban actors, working at different levels of governments (national, regional, local, or even international) and at various physical scales, sometimes beyond the legal boundaries of a city. Indeed, issues of scaling/bounding are one common feature of systems problems.…”

Section: Governance In Urban Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Where this is the case, values and tools such as participation, accountability, and legitimacy have assumed greater weight in political discourses. Finally, cities are highly contested places, where land tenure, shelter and economic development are critical issues and all have important impacts on the health and wellbeing of citizens 55 .…”

Section: Governance In Urban Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban governance and the systems approaches to health-environment co-benefits in cities

et al. 2015

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The term “co-benefits” refers to positive outcomes accruing from a policy beyond the intended outcome, often or usually in other sectors. In the urban context, policies implemented in particular sectors (such as transport, energy or waste) often generate multiple co-benefits in other areas. Such benefits may be related to the reduction of local or global environmental impacts and also extend into the area of public health. A key to identifying and realising co-benefits is the adoption of systems approaches to understand inter-sectoral linkages and, in particular, the translation of this understanding to improved sector-specific and city governance. This paper reviews a range of policies which can yield health and climate co-benefits across different urban sectors and illustrates, through a series of cases, how taking a systems approach can lead to innovations in urban governance which aid the development of healthy and sustainable cities.

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“…However, it will also be clear that the unique historical, cultural, economic and population context for each (associated) member of the Healthy Cities movement will create unique opportunities and barriers to work with these processes toward the achievement of the overarching Healthy Cities ideal: to maintain in a sustainable way the prominence of health and its determinants on social and political agendas of local government areas 12 and to ensure governance and accountability mechanisms that enable responsive adaptation to the continuously changing environment. 13 Such an observation must lead to some theoretical and methodological inferences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating WHO Healthy Cities in Europe: Issues and Perspectives

Leeuw

2012

J Urban Health

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In this introductory article, we situate the findings of the Phase IV evaluation effort of the WHO European Healthy Cities Network in its historic evolutionary development. We review each of the contributions to this supplement in terms of the theoretical and methodological frameworks applied. Although the findings of each are both relevant and generated with a scholarly rigor that is appropriate to the context in which the evaluation took place, we find that particularly these contextual factors have not contributed to optimum quality of research. Any drawbacks in individual contributions cannot be attributed to their analysts and authors but relate to the complicated and evolving nature of the project. These factors are also reviewed.

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Rights, Knowledge, and Governance for Improved Health Equity in Urban Settings

Cited by 27 publications

References 44 publications

Addressing the Social and Environmental Determinants of Urban Health Equity: Evidence for Action and a Research Agenda

Addressing the Social and Environmental Determinants of Urban Health Equity: Evidence for Action and a Research Agenda

Urban governance and the systems approaches to health-environment co-benefits in cities

Evaluating WHO Healthy Cities in Europe: Issues and Perspectives

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